Finnish films prove to be popular nationally in 2015 report

The Finnish Film Foundation’s “Facts & Figures 2015” publication compiles the official cinema statistics from the past year including production and cinema distribution data and for the first time also VoD viewing figures.

Finnish films broke cinema admissions records again in 2015. The previous record for the post-television age of 2 357 000 cinema admission for domestic films in 2012 was surpassed with 2015’s 2 600 000 domestic admissions. This was the fourth consecutive year with more than 2 million domestic admissions in this century. The domestic market share of all cinema admissions, 30 percent, was also once again one of the best in Europe and the best in the Nordic countries. The top domestic film of 2015 was Taneli Mustonen’s comedy Reunion with over 505 000 cinema admissions.

Total cinema attendance increased by around 19 percent in 2015 totaling 8,7 million admissions. The biggest film of the year was Sam Mendes’ Bond adventure Spectre with 647 000 admissions. This was the second time in three years that cinema admissions surpassed the 8 million mark which indicates that the movie experience offered by cinemas is still a big draw even as home cinemas and web based viewing become more popular. The Finnish cinema network has been revitalized by digitalization and in 2015 the number of cinema screens increased to over 300 for the first time in six years.

Finnish films still reach their largest audience through television where even films with limited audience appeal in cinema distribution are seen by hundreds of thousands of viewers. Short films are also very popular on television, some of them reaching audiences far larger than the average feature length fiction films. The most popular domestic short film on television in 2015 was Taneli Mustonen’sThe Facist, a “Glimpse of Joy 2” project with over 675 000 viewers.

Domestic films are also becoming more popular on catch-up tv platforms with tens of thousands of views on average. In 2015 domestic films totaled nearly one million views on the web platforms of the largest television networks Yle, MTV3 and Nelonen.

The Finnish Film Foundation handed out over 25,5 million euros in support for the production, distribution and international promotion of films in 2015. The support funds granted to the Foundation by The Ministry of Education and Culture from lottery and pools funds allocated for the promotion of cinema in

the state budget have decreased by around seven percent since 2012. The number of support applications processed by the Foundation however continue to grow; in 2015 the Foundation processed over 1 400 support application which is an increase of around 24 percent from 2012.

Emma Vestrheim is the editor-in-chief of Cinema Scandinavia. Originally from Australia, she is know based in Bergen, Norway, and attends major Nordic film festivals to conduct interviews and review new films.